Doctors had feared operation would cause brain damage

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Edeilson Nascimento holds an X-ray showing a knife that was inside his head for three years following a bar fight. Doctors at the Hospital das Clinicas in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil, removed the 4-inch blade.

SAO PAULO — A man in northeastern Brazil is recovering after surgeons removed a 4-inch blade that had been stuck in his head for three years following a bar fight. Edeilson Nascimento, a 29-year-old tire repairman, tells reporters Friday he is feeling great after the three-hour surgery earlier this week.

He is expected to be released from a hospital in the city of Recife next week.

Nascimento says he got into a bar fight in 2007 and was attacked by assailants when he returned home.

At the time, doctors only removed the knife handle, fearing that pulling the blade from his head would cause brain damage.

But three years of intense headaches led Nascimento to take a chance on the surgery.

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